Russia warns that “it will be obliged to respond” to the US’s lack of willingness to agree on its security

He questions whether Washington is “really committed” to finding a solution to the issue of security in Europe

MADRID, Feb. 17 (Royals Blue) –

The Russian government has warned this Thursday that “it will be forced to respond” in the “absence of the willingness” of the United States to agree on “firm and legally binding guarantees” that guarantee the security of all parties, “including through the implementation technical-military measures”.

This has been done in the response sent this Thursday to the United States to the proposals presented by the Joe Biden Administration on European security, which Moscow considers “unconstructive” because they have not responded to the “basic elements” requested by Russia previously –the non-expansion of NATO and the rejection of the creation of military bases in territories that previously formed part of the Soviet Union (USSR), mainly–.

“The nature of the package of Russian proposals has been ignored,” lamented Vladimir Putin’s administration, which has said that Washington has “deliberately” chosen “convenient” topics that, moreover, have been “twisted” to create advantages for the United States. and their allies.

“That approach, as well as the accompanying rhetoric by US officials, reinforces legitimate doubts that Washington is really committed to fixing the European security situation,” reads the document, collected by the Russian agency TASS.

In this sense, he has elaborated that the “increasing” military activity of the United States and NATO near the Russian borders is “alarming”, while the Russian “red lines” and its “main” security interests, as well as the Russia’s “sovereign right” to protect them, “continues to be ignored.” “The final demands to withdraw troops from certain areas of Russian territory, accompanied by threats of tougher sanctions, are unacceptable and undermine the prospects of reaching real agreements,” he added.

In addition, he has insisted that “there is no Russian invasion of Ukraine nor is it planned”, so the “declarations on Russia’s responsibility in the escalation cannot be considered in any other way than as an attempt to pressure and devalue the proposals of Russian security guarantees.

For this reason, it has considered that the mention in this context of the Russian obligations under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum –which offers security guarantees on the part of its signatories with respect to Ukraine’s accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty– “it has nothing to do with the intra-Ukrainian conflict and does not apply to circumstances resulting from the action of internal factors there.” “The loss of territorial integrity by the Ukrainian state is the result of the processes that have taken place within it,” she explained.

Similarly, Moscow has denied that it occupied Crimea in 2014 and has stated that the decision came from the people, without the use of force or threat of use of force. Also, he has described as “unsustainable” that Russia started the conflict in Donbas.

Thus, and to reduce the escalation of tension around Ukraine, Russia has asked to stop the supply of weapons to the country, withdraw all Western advisers and instructors, deny NATO countries any joint exercises with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and remove all foreign weapons previously delivered to Kiev.

Moscow also “notes” that in its response to the Russian proposals, the United States insists that progress in improving the European security situation “can only be achieved in terms of de-escalation in relation to Russia’s threatening actions against Ukraine.” ” and has reiterated that it presumes that the deployment of Russian troops in its own territory “does not affect and cannot affect the fundamental interests” of Washington. “We would like to remind you that our forces are not on the territory of Ukraine,” they insisted.

THE PRINCIPLE OF INDIVISIBILITY OF SECURITY

On the other hand, the Putin Administration has indicated that it “has not seen” in the US response “confirmation that the US side is fully committed to observing the immutable principle of the indivisibility of security” and has accused the United States United States of having “an unwillingness” to “abandon its counterproductive and destabilizing course of creating advantages for itself and its allies at the expense of Russia’s security interests.”

“This is exactly what is happening as a result of NATO’s unrestrained implementation of a policy of unrestricted geostrategic and military development of the post-Soviet space, including Ukraine, which is of a particularly sensitive nature for us,” he continued. lamenting once again that “fundamental security interests are ignored and Russia’s inalienable right to guarantee them is denied”, something “unacceptable”.

Likewise, he has criticized that the United States maintains its “strong support” for NATO’s open-door policy because, according to Moscow, it contradicts the basic commitments adopted within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of Do not strengthen your own safety at the expense of others.

In this regard, he has asked Washington and the Alliance to “comply again” with their international obligations in the field of peacekeeping and security and has indicated that he expects “concrete proposals” from NATO members on the content and forms of legal consolidation of the “relinquishment” to further eastward expansion.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, had confirmed hours before that the response would arrive this Thursday, even promising that, once delivered, it would be made public. “If secrecy is maintained, as Washington and Brussels prefer, public opinion will be flooded with lies and crude propaganda that now saturates the information space,” the head of Russian diplomacy has assured, according to the Sputnik agency.

Moscow demands security guarantees so, for example, that NATO does not expand in Eastern Europe and attack weapons are not deployed. However, in recent weeks military commitments have continued to be announced with countries close to Russia, including Ukraine, the epicenter of the latest political and war escalation.

The tension around Ukraine has increased in recent months due to the deployment of Russian troops along the country’s border, which the international community has understood as a possible preparation for an “invasion”. Russia has denied these accusations and has accused NATO of increasing military activity in the area.